So, I am playing Secret World

So, I wrote this post almost 3 years ago now... Why I won't be playing The Secret World

So much has changed since then!


Not only do I now have a computer which can run The Secret World quite nicely, they've made substantial changes to the game which make it far more playable.

Enemies are easier overall, and characters are tougher overall. This means although the grind and constant death are still issues, they're much less apparent now and you fly through the content at a much nicer pace.

There's a great in-game player created resource called "Sanctuary" where plenty of people can help you with various issues, and unlike other MMOs it's not full of bullshit politics and stupidity. The builds people share through this chat are really good, and learning how to construct good builds from the sharing of builds means there's less head scratching and more scary stuff killing.

My main character Johnny "PunkFunk" Barrett is now QL10, which is near the end game kind of build. I've completed the main story which was great, and just finished Issues 5,6 and 7, which were very fun.

If you've ever been interested in playing I suggest now is the time to jump on and give it a go.

The Secret World Ultimate Edition is less than $50, very much worth it.

Why I won't be playing The Secret World

Although I really enjoyed playing Funcom's The Secret World beta weekends, and really like the concept of three mystical organisations competing with each other to command the mystical and diabolic, and had similar feelings playing the game to when I played The Darkness and Alan Wake (two games I really enjoyed) I don't think I'll be playing.

1) Mostly because I won't have a computer to play it on between July 16 and probably end of July. As I'm moving countries (again) I can't really justify spending $50 on it for only two weeks of play.

2) My current PC runs the game like crap. I tried PvP and it ran like a dog - max 15 fps, average 5fps! :eek: (it's the same reason I can't play PvP in SWTOR)

3) I found it too grindy. If my main quest tells me I should go into another area, I should be able to go into another area and be able to survive. I found upon moving to Savage Coast I had HUGE difficulties with the quests. Even those I managed to complete, I never felt my character got enough experience to survive the next challenges. I realise that the exploration quests were turned off for the last weekend so my lvl was a little less than it could have been, however, it just didn't feel "fun" in the Savage Coast.

4) I don't like the skill system. Well, I do like the system, I think it's great that you can make a character in almost any way you see fit, but I think the slowness of accumulating points is very off putting. If you've got an exponential system that means you have to pay more points to go up higher ranks in the skills (so, to grow your pistol skills you have to pay 1, then 2, then 4, then 7, then 9, then 12 etc), then you should be getting more points more often as you progress, but this isn't the case in TSW.

5) Not being able to reassign points is a major put off too. I suspect this may have simply be turned off for Beta, which is fair enough, but there are some skills which are just worthless to certain builds or play styles, and you only get a feel for them after playing.

I may return to it sometime in the future, but with Guild Wars II coming out in August, I really don't know if I'll have the time or money to play it.